Our Nation faces a critical challenge. The enemies of freedom have
waged war against us by stealth and deceit. The threat of another
terrorist attack is with us every day, but in the face of this
adversity, the American people have united behind the President to
fight terrorism and secure our homeland. To manage this effort, the
President has proposed a Department of Homeland Security.

At this challenging time, we believe that the President's existing,
government-wide authority to exclude unions from certain agencies in
the interests of our national security should be preserved for this new
department. In proposals under consideration in the Senate, the
President could not exercise his long-standing authority unless he can
first satisfy two new, burdensome standards that do not apply to any
other department. We do not believe that it is logical, especially in
this time of war, for the President to have this critical national
security authority for each of the 14 existing Cabinet departments, but
to have that authority effectively stripped from him when it comes to
the department created for the very purpose of protecting the
homeland.

Many employees in our respective Departments will be moving to the
new Department. However, if these agencies were left in their existing
departments and not moved to the proposed Department of Homeland
Security, the President would continue to exercise his complete
national security authority. Conversely, if the agencies are moved,
with the same employees and same mission to the Department of Homeland
Security, the President would have less national security authority
over the employees.

As Cabinet Secretaries, we rely daily on both union and non-union
Federal personnel. Together, we manage over 1.6 million employees, and
over a million of them belong to unions. We have seen firsthand the
hard work and long hours these people dedicate to the missions of the
Departments in our charge. Federal employees have been -- and will
continue to be -- the backbone of our Nation's homeland security
efforts.

Today, the President can exclude unions in each of the departments
we lead if he finds that doing so is necessary for reasons of national
security. This long-standing authority reflects a careful balance
struck by President Kennedy in 1962, when he permitted Federal workers
to unionize but reserved the power to remove or limit this right for
reasons of national security. President Carter and the Congress
formalized this authority into law in the 1978 Civil Service Reform
Act. Every President since then has used it. Our departments'
histories provide clear evidence that every President has exercised
this power with discretion and responsibly.

We respectfully ask you to support legislation that would establish
a Department of Homeland Security and maintain for that new department
the President's existing authority to act in the interests of our
national security.